Learn lessons from sadness in schools

A society in which our kids are unhappy is an unhappy society. Sadly, according to a BBC report, our kids ARE unhappy.

A worrying 70% of secondary school pupils have experienced feelings of anxiety, fear or unhappiness in the past year. That doesn’t surprise me.

School – both primary and secondary – has changed over the decades. In the 1970s teachers could still whack you. Head teachers could brandish a cane and sinisterly set about you with it. Ouch! It really stung.

And, of course, there was bullying. In junior school I regularly got beaten up by girls on my way home because the school heart-throb fancied me. On one occasion they took my brand new watch, a birthday present from my parents, and stamped on it until it broke into pieces.

I knew, though, that when I got home, my lovely, warm, smiley mum would wrap me up in love. Once I’d closed the door the bullying stopped. It couldn’t follow me in.

Now the bullying, and the horrible shaming, creeps in through the door with our kids.

Round-the-clock bullying, with no escape, save a confiscated phone. Round-the-clock insecurities courtesy of Snapchat images of unattainable beauty and body-shape perfection. Round-the- clock access to porn. Or to preying perverts. Round-the-clock access to ‘must-have’ trainers that you can’t afford. Round-the-clock news of the latest terrorist slaughter. Round-the-clock access to images of self-harm.

Or ways to commit suicide. Or do-it-yourself explosives, all whirring around our children’s heads.

At school, disempowered, overworked teachers, facing intolerable pressure, are tasked with turning our kids into academic automatons.

Infants are assessed from the age of six when they sit their SATS under exam conditions. Education is strict, rigorous, relentless, humourless, a mirror of the Singaporean and Chinese systems that our Department of Education aspires to. But children are not all the same. Some struggle in one-size-fits-all Government-set tests.

Academic subjects rule over the self-expression of drama, sport, music, art or cookery.

Teachers and kids are in a pressurecooker environment with no release valve. No wonder both groups report anxiety, depression, eating disorders and other mental health problems.

League tables are an illustration of a school’s academic achievements.

It is a glaring omission that there is not a corresponding scoring system to measure our children’s levels of happiness.

Education is rigorous, relentless strict and humourless